Terworth



(No Model.)

A. W. BUTTERWORTH.

STRETGHER FOR MECHANICAL TELEPHONE LINE WIRES. No. 399,016. Patented Mar. 5, 1889 m'tnesses. In to Mm??? W a N. PETERS. PEMMRM m i-m. \Vashmgmn. 0. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

ALEXAXDER BI'TTERXYORTH, 0F XE YORK, N. Y.

STRETCHER FOR MECHANlCAL-TELEPHONE-LINE WIRES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 399,016, dated March 5, 1889.

Application filed August 6, 1888. Serial No. 282,0 L'7. (No model.)

To (LZZ 2071 0712 it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER W. BUT- TERWORTH, a citizen of the United States, residing at if) Broadway, New York city,in the county of New York and State of New York, j

have invented certain new and useful linprovements in Stretchers for Telephone and other Line ires; and I do hereby declare 1 that the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in stretchers for telephone and other line wires.

It is well known that telephone, telegraph, and other line wires are subject to expansion or contraction under atmospheric changes, and hence may be closely stretched or taut one day and slack another, according to the state of the weather in respect to temperature. Now, it is essential, particularly in lines dependent upon vibratory action of the wire for satisfactory communication, as in telephones dispensing with the electric current, to have the wire not only tightly but uniformly; stretched at all times; but this is impossible without automatic mechanism, as otherwise the ever-changing temperature of the air will necessarily vary the tension of the wire, and with certain systems of telephone, in which a tightly-stretched wire is essential to their operation, would seriously impair, it not wholly destroy, their usefulness when the weather is warm and the wire slack. difficulties by providing automatic tension devices which take up or give out slack as may be required, holding meantime a steady and even pull on the wire and keeping it as taut practically as when originally stretched, in the manner hereinafter described.

The drawing shows a tension device consisting of an arm pivoted upon a pole and having an adjustable weight at one end and a bridge-piece at the other supporting several line-wires.

In the drawing, A indicates an ordinary line pole or support, and B a line-Wire. I show a series of these wires supported uniformly by the same bridge piece or bar K, and con- I overcome these i l nected therewith by means of insulators of any suitable construction. This bridge piece or bar is in turn supported by a lever or arm, 1 C, pivoted on the pole A between straps D, and attached at one end centrally to the bottom of the bridge-piece. The opposite end 1 of the bar or arm C is screw-threaded and carries a weight, E. This weight is adjustable upon the lever or arm, so as to accommodate it to the varying needs of the line without changing weights and to maintain uniform tension. Several conditions and needs are provided for and met by this construction. In the first place, a bridge-piece may be loaded with, say, only three out of the five wires it is constructed to carry. In this case it will take, say, a certain adjustment of the counterweight to make the wires taut. Then when the linemen put on the other two wires they have only to adjust the weight outward to counterbalance the additional wires and the same tension upon all is restored. Again, the varying distances between poles suggest need of varying range in the tension mechanism, which my improved construction supplies. By having the counter-weight adjustable greater or less tension can be given the wires that are up, as well as provide for a greater or less number of wires without any change in the tension devices. Another material ad vantage of this construction is that the slack is taken up by an upward pressure, thus preventing sagging of the wires.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A tension device for overhead wires, consisting of a main support, as a pole, a lever 4 pivoted upon the pole, a bridge-piece for car- 1 rying the wire attached to one end of the lever, and an adjustable counter-weight on the opposite end of the lever, substantially as set 1 forth.

i In testimony whereof I hereunto set my i hand this 20th day of July, 1888.

l ALEXANDER W. liUT'lERWOR'llI. 1 Witnesses:

F. B. TAYLOR, EDWIN R. SEANIL. 

